The present invention relates to a lighting apparatus such as a headlamp or a fog lamp which illuminates the forward part of a vehicle such as a car, and more particularly to a vehicle light apparatus which has the function of controlling a change in a lighting direction or a lighting area of a lamp light corresponding to a running situation and can properly carry out lighting in order to realize the safe running of the vehicle.
In order to enhance the running safety of a car, it is necessary to illuminate the running direction of a vehicle. A lamp for illuminating the forward part of a car such as a conventional headlamp or fog lamp of the car is constituted to carry out an illumination in the straight running direction of the car. In the case in which the car changes a course direction on an intersection road (a T-shaped road, a crossroad and so forth) or a curved road (an S-shaped road, a U-shaped road and so forth), therefore, the forward part of a course to be changed cannot be illuminated previously and a forward confirmation is carried out insufficiently so that there is a problem in respect of safe running. For such a problem, there has been proposed a lighting apparatus in which a lighting range, that is, a lighting direction or a lighting area of a lamp is changed according to the steering operation of a car. For example, a lighting optical axis to be the lighting direction of a lamp for illuminating the forward part of a car can be changed transversely or a lighting area to be a range in which the lamp can carry out lighting can be changed, and furthermore, a steering angle (a steering angle of a steering wheel) which is closely related to the running direction of the car can be detected by a steering sensor for detecting the rotating angle of a steering wheel, for example, and the lighting direction of the lamp can be turned in the running direction of the car based on the detection output of the steering sensor or the lighting area can be enlarged in the running direction. Thus, the running direction of the car on an intersection road or a curved road can be illuminated previously, which is effective for safe running.
However, the conventional lighting apparatus serves to simply control the lighting range according to a steering angle. For this reason, it is hard to carry out a proper lighting control to cope with various running situations of a car in some cases. For example, in the case in which the car is running on a curved road having a small radius of curvature, it is desirable that a driver should confirm the situation of a curved road in a course earlier than the execution of a steering operation. In the conventional lighting apparatus in which the lighting range depends on the steering angle, however, it is hard to enlarge the lighting range in a greater angular direction than an angle corresponding to the steering angle and the situation of the curved road of the course cannot be confirmed sufficiently in some cases. Also in the case in which a right turn or a left turn is made on an intersection road, the same operation is carried out. On the other hand, when a lighting range is controlled and is thereby changed in the case in which the steering operation is carried out for a lane change during running at a high speed, the illumination of a self-lane in the straight running direction of the car becomes insufficient so that a problem arises in respect of high-speed safe running.